Can technical scrutiny of budget allocations, delinked from political debates, achieve transformation of either budgetary processes or outcomes? This paper argues that a significant opportunity is lost if gender responsive budgeting (GRB) is not included in critical feminist analysis. Beginning with experiences of GRB in the Asia Pacific region, this paper then reviews the case of GRB in the state of Kerala in India.
The author argues that the real achievement of GRB in Kerala is that efforts have been made to reach women at the grassroots. The Kerala model focuses on developing schemes that address women’s specific needs and priorities and realigning other existing schemes to make them more gender responsive. GRB is used to ensure that funds are made available for these schemes. For example, GRB has been used to allocate resources to gender friendly infrastructure or new housing schemes made for low paid women workers. The author recommends that GRB work should go beyond budget statements, and ensure greater resources for women.